Page 110 - Chronicles of Darkness

here, as players should be given plenty of options to choose This is a good thing, and as a Storyteller you shouldn’t
for their characters to fail. They should have control over it feel disappointment or frustration. The story follows the
in some way, and remember that their character’s failure is characters, not the other way around, and if you can keep
empowering in more than one way. that in mind, there are a lot of behind-the-curtain tricks that
you and the other players can utilize to make the whole thing
It’s in the Story feel more cohesive, while avoiding losing any good material
you’ve prepared ahead of time.
To some players, “a sloppy series of endless tragedies
which compound on each other until, ultimately, every- Schrödinger’s Character
one dies alone” is an ideal Chronicles of Darkness game.
However, that’s not for everyone. Of course, on the other If you’ve planned for a confrontation with a Storyteller
end, competence porn where characters are always awesome character to happen at the bar where the characters are sup-
and never suffer real setbacks is not in keeping with any posed to hang out, but which they’ve avoided for the third
Chronicles of Darkness game. A good story will appeal to a game session in a row, move the damned confrontation.
majority of players; let the players who naturally want to run Shuffle your Storyteller characters around if you need to,
their characters into the ground do so. And the players who move clues or story details into your players’ paths, rather
are afraid of failure? Talk to them. Take their favorite movie, than worrying about the fact that you can’t force them into
and examine the series of conflicts and setbacks the heroic the right place for the right plot points. Any player can sug-
characters experience and draw parallels with how you’d like gest moves like this; it doesn’t have to be a Storyteller secret.
the pacing of your chronicle to go. It’s a good idea for you Also, you can drop it out in the open for everyone to act
to be familiar with several types of plot pacing, anyway. The on. “Guys, Garry the Knife is coming for you, where does
best fiction puts the characters through a series of setbacks he surprise you?”
contrasted with rising action, so your chronicle should, too. Aspiration Inspiration
Succeed at a Cost Characters who sit on their thumbs aren’t exciting, tragic,

There are times when failure would really drag down a or drawn into intrigue. If you can’t seem to motivate your
game, but the dice say that’s what happened. Sometimes when characters to explore the various channels of the mysteries
a Storyteller says, ”Well, just roll to see what happens,” and you’ve built on their own, then tie the whole thing to their
what happens is an inexplicable failure, you can always opt Aspirations. You can do this by suggesting new Aspirations
instead for a success but with consequences attached. This is when they’ve satisfied old ones, asking, “Hey, did you guys ever
also a technique to use when your player appears crestfallen get around to what happened to Sara? Is that loose end bugging
when the dice hit the table and you may lose engagement your character at all? Sounds like a good Aspiration.” It’s okay
from them. “Okay, the punch lands, but...,” “Yeah, she’s to be direct. It’s always okay to be direct. You can also reverse
actually pretty into your sales pitch, but....” Give the player engineer this, by finding a way to tie existing Aspirations to the
what she was shooting for, but tie it to something that’s going path you’d like to guide your players toward. You don’t ever
to sting down the road. want to force them to deal with a story they aren’t interested in,
because you never know why a player wants to avoid a storyline.
Pick Your Poison It might be harmless, or it might be because you’ve created a
story element they don’t want to deal with for personal reasons.
It is always better to give your players more choices rather
than fewer, because more chances to choose are more chances This is why giving them a choice to follow their Aspirations is
for drama and intrigue. A failed dice roll often feels like the better than demanding or steamrolling them into following
end of a player’s choices, and carries with it a sense of final- your plotline. This is particularly important in a Chronicles
ity. “Well, we didn’t find the clue we need, guess we’ll go of Darkness game, which can go to dark places very quickly.
do something else.” That’s not intrigue. Instead of a simple Recycle the Waste
failure, give the players a choice, a difficult decision, one that
affects the story going forward. For example, “You find the You know that powerful letter you prepared for a dead
clue, but it implicates only you,” or, “You don’t find the clue Storyteller character to deliver as a ghost to your player
and your case is at a dead end, but you’ve discovered a new, characters? Well, it turns out they prevented his death, so
possibly-unrelated crime to investigate.” that leaves the idea dead instead, right? Not really! After all,
No Meat Wasted someone’s got to die sooner or later. Just change the word-
ing on the letter and have it delivered by a different lost soul
entirely. Nothing’s wasted!
Sometimes, players get distracted and don’t perfectly fol-
low a Storyteller’s leads. Players often don’t take the obvious Conditions and Failing Dramatically
path, distracted by interesting Storyteller characters, miscom-
munication about clues and details, or character exploration Both negative Conditions and Dramatic Failures are ways
on which a Storyteller didn’t count. for players to fail triumphantly, and for characters to grow
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invisible hands-storytelling responsibilities